Virtual Aviator

It won't be long now before I'm back in the saddle. ASUS, after a bunch of wrangling agreed to fix and return my ASUS Hero Maximus motherboard, but not before invoicing me $663.00 and claiming the motherboard was physically damaged. After jumping through their hurdles they returned a new motherboard at no charge to me.

Turns out the motherboard was never the culprit and I'd sent them a perfectly good motherboard. While waiting on a decision from them, I purchased a Gigabyte AORUS motherboard. I've decided to transition to Gigabyte after my woes with ASUS's warranty division.

When I installed my CPU into the Gigabyte motherboard and still couldn't fly X-Plane I knew it had to be the CPU. I'd already replaced an SSD drive, the RAM, and the motherboard. I knew it wasn't the graphics card because I was getting the same behavior with the onboard graphics.

I contacted Intel to exercise the warranty. Not hearing anything from Intel after 3 days, I ordered a new CPU (and yes, they are expensive). It arrived the next day. Now I'm pretty much back in business. I can fly my sims (XP12 & MSFS). The fourth day, I heard from Intel. They had a bunch of suggestions they wanted me to try. I don't think Intel appreciates the hassle of installing CPU's, especially with a giant heatsink. Anyway, their suggestions did not work, and the new CPU worked fine. After 3 more days, they agreed to replace the old CPU but needed my shipping address. I gave that to them 3 days ago, so I suppose I will hear from them and get an RMA any day.

In the meantime, I've been trying to restore everything. Since I installed Windows 11 on the new SSD drive, the computer has been like a virgin.

This is where I'm at. I have 3 perfectly good LGA 1700 motherboards (I also have an ASUS TUF GAMING Z690-PLUS WIFI D4; there's a story behind that one too). I have 3 LGA CPUs: an i9-12900K, an i9-14900K to be sent to Intel, and an i9-14900KF. I have at least 32GB of RAM for each motherboard. Plus, I have an extra 850-watt power supply. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the extra parts, but I hope to get some of my money back out of 'em.

With all this said, I hope to be videoing new flights and streaming really soon. I miss you all.

1 year ago | [YT] | 3

Virtual Aviator

It has been a while since my last flight (flight sim upload). Currently, my aircraft (my computer) is out of commission. I must send the flight computer (my real-world computer motherboard) back to the manufacturer (ASUS) for repairs. I should have it back in a couple of weeks. If systems are running stable once I'm back, I'll re-double my efforts to bring you a flight at least weekly. Thanks for supporting my channel.

1 year ago | [YT] | 2

Virtual Aviator

Normally, both parts of a flight would go on the same channel. Not this time. Part 2, of the World's Most Immersive Aircraft... is on my @virtualgeneralaviation channel. If you're wondering why I have two similar channels, just ask.
Be sure to see the note in the Part 2 description for a partial explanation.

2 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 1

Virtual Aviator

For my Aviation friends, I uploaded part 1 of a PC-12 flight on my other channel. Unless I garner enough subs (1K+) to monetize that channel, it's acting as my repository of unedited videos. I have a cold and ultimately felt too bad to finish the entire flight (the flight was going downhill as it progressed). I plan to edit and trim it down and ultimately upload it to this channel.

4 years ago | [YT] | 1

Virtual Aviator

Hi Guys, I'm planning new content for 2021. I'll continue to do Flight Simulation videos. I'm also planning to create something along the lines of a documentary series of various subjects. I might start with subjects that may appeal to my local geographical area as I become positioned to expand the content. We'll see, so stay tuned.

5 years ago | [YT] | 2

Virtual Aviator

What happened to the photography videos? I get asked this a lot and I get that most of you subscribed to the photography channel. Anyone who's a photographer knows that photography is an expensive hobby. The cost of good gear is astronomical. My original plan with the photography channel was to buy gear regularly to review and then sell it at some point - of course at a loss. I figured I could do this for a couple years whilst I built my subscriber base. At some point, I would gain enough subscribers to offset the cost of new gear. In reality, my subscriber base was growing at a snail's pace. I gained only 1K subs in 2 years. At that rate, it would take about 5 years to be able to break even on acquiring new gear to review. I simply can't afford that. Also, I was disheartened to see other folks start channels and within 6 months had reached 1K subs. Clearly, most people didn't like my style. So I've decided to return to uploading videos as a labor of love. I decided to stop measuring my Youtube success by the success of other creators. I decided to upload videos on whatever subject I am passionate about at the time I record. As soon as the inspiration and passion for photography returns, I'll resume uploading photography videos. Until then, you'll find different playlists on my channel for a variety of subjects. My current focus is on flight simming and aviation.

6 years ago | [YT] | 3

Virtual Aviator

I just realized I filmed one of my passwords in one of my Flight Simming videos (aviation playlist). It wasn't apparent how to use Youtube to cut it out or blur it. I've removed the video and am uploading an edited version that will show up as a new video. I am morphing my channel into a myriad of topics found in the playlist.

6 years ago | [YT] | 0